In 1949, Nye Bevan, architect of the NHS and doyen of the Labour left, proclaimed his vision of new municipally owned housing estates, in which “the working man, the doctor and the clergyman will live in close proximity”. His Housing Act removed the reference to publicly subsidised housing exclusively for “the working classes”, and aimed for the replacement of slums and ghettos for the poor with the “living tapestry of a mixed community”...by 1979 a third of the population lived in social housing...after 40 years of right to buy, 17% now live in social housing. Half of all residences have 1 person with either a disability or long term illness. Source
David Cameron's government proposed making council tenants 'pay to stay' if they earned over a certain threshold. The plan was scrapped because it was impractical. Source